Will never take my mini trips to WDW for granted EVER again.

[tbssenterprises]

After years of big annual trips to WDW with family, as a senior now, I do take a couple of mini-trips to WDW a few times a year (a five hour drive). Every once in a while I'd ask myself, what am I doing here....as I did the same things over and over, (albeit I always made sure I tried new experiences). I loved the freedom of being in AK and then saying, wait, I want to go to lunch at the Poly or GF and leaving and jumping on a bus....... doing something else, heading back to hotel for nap, and then hitting HS for cocktails or Epcot to walk around. How I miss those days! I am just darn glad I took all of those trips in the past (last one being last January and FREEZING my keister off) LOL! Oh, hoping things go back to NORMAL soon.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

After years of big annual trips to WDW with family, as a senior now, I do take a couple of mini-trips to WDW a few times a year (a five hour drive). Every once in a while I'd ask myself, what am I doing here....as I did the same things over and over, (albeit I always made sure I tried new experiences). I loved the freedom of being in AK and then saying, wait, I want to go to lunch at the Poly or GF and leaving and jumping on a bus....... doing something else, heading back to hotel for nap, and then hitting HS for cocktails or Epcot to walk around. How I miss those days! I am just darn glad I took all of those trips in the past (last one being last January and FREEZING my keister off) LOL! Oh, hoping things go back to NORMAL soon.

Amen to this - couldn't agree with you more. We've done trips like that, and sure do look forward to the days a trip like that is feasible again. Great memories!

 

[Minnie1222]

Hear hear!

 

[Gehrig1B]

We do longer trips being from Texas but holiday the same way as you do. Very often we will find ourselves in 3 different parks during a single day. We like to FP+ a morning park., look for E-ticket ride availability at another park during the afternoon, a brief respite at our favorite resort, and off to dinner and fireworks at another park.

We gave up commando rope drop to close visits a long time ago. We really enjoy the spontaneity after a morning of fast passes. We often can work the app for 10+ fast passes in a day if we want and haven't been in a standby line of over 20 minutes in years. (except for opening day of MMRR-80 minutes)

We have plans for our annual NYE visit in December but still pondering whether to ask for an AP refund and wait until we have a "new normal."

 

[lovin'fl]

I wish I'd have appreciated and enjoyed our December 2019 Orlando trip. That was like our 5th time in Florida (driving 9 hours from NC) in 2019. And had to drive a whole lot between Oct and Dec due to family being 5.5 hours from us, DDs being in college 9 hours from us. Between driving to family for holidays and our trips and picking up girls at college....it was a hectic end of the year and I really didn't want to do the trip to FL in Dec. Especially after being there a week in Oct. Dec trip was over Xmas too and had to drive, 15 hours, straight up to family on the 26th. And i am still getting crap from my mom for not being with her on the 25th. But we had friends invite us and they had the year prior too and we said no then so felt we couldn't say no a 2nd time. I was super unpleasant and difficult that trip. Now wish I had let go and just enjoyed it because it turned out to be a last trip to FL for a while (probably @ 13 months).

 

[No.1000]

We, too, love the freedom of traveling the "world" at a whim. Many times if a park gets crowded or if we just want to do something, we jump on the bus and change things up. One of my favorite Disney moments was a evening we were in AK and my DH said, "Let's go watch Happily Ever After" (my very favorite thing in all of DW). We raced out of the park, caught a bus, gritted our teeth hoping we would make it, dashed through security, and snaked our way through the crowd just in time.

Don't get me wrong...I will be happy to be back even with things as they are, but I hope that someday we will get some of the old back, too.

 

[missnic]

Same We're a 2.5 hour drive away, and would decide the night before that we wanted lunch at Biergarten or wherever. DH and I keep listing off things that we would be willing to do when things go back to some semblance of 'normal'.. Like, we'd go see Country Bear Jamboree WITHOUT complaining. We'd even eat lunch at Tony's. Or America.

 

[masupo]

This was going to be the first year I would be able to take spur of the moment mini trips along with some longer ones. I'm in my 50's and I'm finally at a place in life where I a) can afford afford it and b) work someplace with a great vacation and holiday policy.

I've been lucky to travel to WDW about 8 times in my life. 2 great trips when I was a kid, then almost every visit as an adult was spontaneous or planned in a short amount of time. I'm not complaining, I just never really got to enjoy planning my trips far in advance. Nobody in my real life would understand that, so I'm sharing with y'all.

I hit the jackpot when my best friend got a a job with a company that holds a yearly conference at Disney. She usually took various family members with her, but I went twice. The conference was always at a deluxe, so it was the only way I ever got to stay at the Grand Floridian and Yacht Club. Her fiance couldn't go this year so in late January she invited me to Beach Club in March.

You all know what happened then, plus my BFF got laid off. She's ok with it - they paid a decent severance, she got married (without a ceremony or reception), moved to a new place and has faith she'll find another job in time.

The trip fell on my birthday this year and my present to myself was going to be an AP. I planned to hop down to the World anytime I found cheap airfare and a good hotel rate. You could even find amazing onsite rates through Priceline/Hotwire.

Now it's a whole new world. I rescheduled my trip to Nov. I'm staying at Pop & taking Mom, but we're still not sure if we want to go. I'm in NJ, so if the quarantine is still in place, I can't go. If not, we'll look at going March 2021.

Wow, this has gotten long! Like I said, people IRL don't get my Disney obsession. I found a place to share with like-minded peeps and it all spilled out LOL.

TL;DR - Covid sucks and has changed the World and how we travel, and how much we appreciate our chances to enjoy the magic...

 

[tbssenterprises]

Yup, not many people share my WDW obsession (not even my husband). Some people just don't "get it", and that's OK. We are all so very lucky that we do "get it". It's not about the rides, or the characters, or whatever. It's something different that I can't even explain. But we all know what "it" is. And we are lucky for that!!!

 

[Blondie58]

I grew up on a small farm in the midwest. In a million years I never thought I would go to WDW. Traveling and vacations were things other people did. However, life has been good and some travel dreams of that little farm girl have come to fruition in adulthood including multiple trips to WDW the last few years. No doubt I am thankful for hard work and good fortune each time I land at MCO and know the magic and pixi dust are just a few miles away. Three WDW trips scheduled for 2021. Yeah! (Go away soon Covid.)